


Next To Me

by cold_nights_summer_days



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Birthday, Enjoy!, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Irondad feels, New Tag, One Shot, Peter Parker is a Little Shit, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Starks Birthday, anyway, happy bday tony!!, honestly what did yall expect, i cant believe that didnt exist, just made that a tag too, surprise birthday parties, suspicous tony stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:53:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24450130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cold_nights_summer_days/pseuds/cold_nights_summer_days
Summary: I'm just hopping on the bangwaggon since its May 29th. Happy Birthday to our lord and saviour, Tony Stark!
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 62





	Next To Me

**Author's Note:**

> hi guys. so im sorry about the whole sospiarti di blu thing, i swear it will get the second chapter soon. i know i say that a lot but trust me this time i mean it. anyway, I love you all and hope you enjoy this fic!
> 
> title from next to me by imagine dragons

Peter stood at the edge of the sidewalk bouncing from foot to foot. He held his phone to his ear and was talking quickly before noticing Tony had pulled up beside him on the curb. Tony stepped out of the car (an unassuming black Audi) and asked Peter if he wanted to drive. (He’d gotten his license two weeks ago and still thought driving was the best thing ever. As if he didn’t hang out with _Iron Man._ )

“Yeah!” Peter said, looking more relieved than excited. Was something wrong? Was Tony really that bad at driving? Happy would say yes, but what did he know? Tony asked as much once they’d settled into the car. 

“Am I really that bad at driving?” He asked, feigning hurt. Peter, damn him, saw through the act instantly and shook his head. 

“Of course not. I just like driving is all. Although, there was one time I thought we were going to die when you tried to merge on the interstate. It was when we were going to that lecture in Vermont.”

“I was only doing ninety,” Tony said, earning a “yeah right” look from Peter. “Okay, maybe it was closer to one hundred—but we were going to be late.”

“We wouldn’t have had to speed if you’d been ready at seven like Pepper told you to.”

“If I’m remembering this correctly—and I probably am because I’m a genius— _I_ wasn’t ready because I was busy trying to wake _you_ up.”

“That doesn’t sound like me at all,” Peter lied indignantly, hiding his smile by pretending to look at the side mirror. Neither of them was known for their punctuality, but without May or Pepper to force them out the door they rarely made it anywhere they were supposed to be. To be fair, most of those things were boring meetings or afterschool activities. 

“It’s not that shocking you don’t remember, really.”

“And why not?”

“Because you were asleep.”

Peter had his retort on the tip of his tongue, but he was interrupted when Tony asked where they were going. Peter was weirdly quiet for a minute before carefully telling him they had another stop planned before they went to the tower. 

“Please don’t kidnap me, kid.” Tony laughed, only half joking. He trusted Peter completely, probably even with his life, but it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that ever happened to him. Obie briefly crossed his mind before he shook away the thoughts. Peter would never do such a thing. 

“I’m not. I promise it’s worth it.” Peter said, glancing over at his ~~dad~~ mentor before smiling conspiratorially. Tony doubted that the real reason Peter wanted to drive was just for fun. As good (read: terrible) Peter was at keeping his identity a secret, he barely managed to lie about anything else. He assumed it was connected to the phone call earlier, but he couldn’t just ask him outright. It would seem suspicious. 

_Maybe he figured out it’s my birthday._ Tony wondered briefly. No way. He had never told him that it was coming up, he didn’t think it mattered, but Peter liked to celebrate these kinds of things. It wasn’t like he couldn’t find out from FRIDAY or Pepper or even Wikipedia if he wanted to know. Tony contemplated just asking, but he didn’t want to be wrong. If Peter truly didn’t know that it was his birthday, he’d feel terrible for it. No, Tony would just stay quiet and hope that wherever they were going didn’t have aliens or terrorists or anything else capable of killing him.

Aside from small talk, they stayed relatively quiet for the rest of the fifteen-minute drive. ACDC played quietly through the radio and Tony couldn’t help but smile when he saw Peter tapping out the beat on the steering wheel. They were stopped at a stoplight, and Peter probably hadn’t even realized he was doing it. _Pepper was right. I totally have rubbed off on him. Poor kid._

Peter pulled into the back-parking lot of a small Italian restaurant. Tony eyed it skeptically. Peter sighed before practically dragging him inside. He had his latest backpack with him. Tony assumed he was planning on doing homework while they waited—it wasn’t that uncommon—but they only waited for two minutes before a hostess brought them to their table. May and Pepper were already there, along with a small bundle of balloons and a wrapped present. So. Peter did know. 

“Happy birthday!” He practically shouted, though the next part was quieter. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything about it earlier today, it was honestly hard not to in the car, but I wanted this to be a complete surprise.” 

Pepper smiled from behind Peter, and Tony knew he must have had some dumb surprised look on his face. Not a complete surprise, perhaps, but Peter didn’t need to know that. 

“Oh. Thank you,” Tony whispered, sounding more choked up than he might have liked. Howard’s words floated through his mind— _Starks don’t cry_ —but as he had learned to do, he ignored them. _This is a perfectly good fucking reason to be emotional, thank you very much._

Pepper and May were sitting next to each other on one side, leaving Peter and Tony to take the other. As soon as they had sat down, Peter unzipped his backpack and pulled out a clumsily wrapped box and slightly bent card. He apologized and said that it had gotten bent when Flash shoved him earlier that morning. May raised her eyebrow at that but decided to leave it until later. 

Peter insisted that Tony open his presents after the waitress left with their drink orders. Tony was still in a bit of shock about the whole thing, but it was hard to say no to Peter. Especially when he used his puppy dog eyes, which he was doing now. 

May had gotten him a t-shirt with some funny science joke (that Peter had no doubt picked out, and probably also owned). Tony thanked her before moving on to Peter’s present. He decided to read the card first, carefully taking it out of the bent envelope. The front had a picture of a rather round looking bird with the words “Happy Bird-Day”. 

_Dear Tony,_ (thank god he’d finally gotten the kid to drop the “Mr. Stark” act)

_First of all, I hope you had a really awesome birthday. Pepper told me that you don’t celebrate it much anymore, but I think it’s important. Without your birthday you literally wouldn’t exist, and personally, I think that would suck. I’d still be running around in that horrible costume, for one. Thank god you saved New York from that mess._

_But more seriously, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I know it isn’t easy to let people in, especially weird strangers, but I’m glad that we did. I would be dead ten times over if it wasn’t for you. It’s more than just the fact that you’ve saved my life, though. You’re there even when the situation isn’t life threatening. You always seem to know when I’m not okay—especially when I try to lie about it—but more importantly, you always know how to make it better._

_I haven’t been able to count on a lot people in my life, but I’m really glad that you’re one of them. If I’m being honest, you’re like a father to me even though you don’t acknowledge it. You taught me that family doesn’t always have to mean blood._

_\- Peter_

Tony hadn’t noticed the tears in his eyes until he looked up and found the world blurry. Peter started apologizing profusely before Tony stopped him. 

“No, no. It’s . . . it’s perfect,” He said. Peter looked confused, like he’d been expecting a different answer to that note. 

“It is?” 

“Of course. Did you really think I’d be upset about it?” 

“Well, you did start crying,” Peter countered. 

“I didn’t mean to! And definitely not because I was upset about it,” Tony explained. Peter breathed in relief. 

“Thank god, because that might have made the rest of the gift a little awkward,” Peter said, handing Tony the box he’d pulled from his backpack. He opened it, wanting to cry all over again when he saw what it was. It was a white mug with “World’s Best Dad” printed in bold, black letters. 

“I know Dum-E broke your favorite mug last week, so I wanted to get you a new one,” He explained. Tony thanked him and quickly wiped away the rest of the tears threatening to make an appearance. 

So yes, while Tony didn’t like celebrating his birthday much anymore, this one hadn’t been so bad after all. In fact, it had been the best. And if that card made its way onto his desk at Stark Industries, well, nobody else needed to know.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this! Check out my [Tumblr!](https://funky--lil--spider.tumblr.com/) for more marvel/irondad content!
> 
> [Support me on Ko-Fi, or commission a fic!](https://ko-fi.com/cold_nights_summer_days)


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